"Raajneeti" has a theme that will always resonate with members of the world's largest democracy. It takes us into the corridors of power and looks at the business of politics and the politics of love. As a movie, it also scores because it has what the other big releases in recent times lack - namely, a story. This story is a mish-mash of The Mahabharata and The Godfather with a dash of the Gandhi family thrown in for added flavour. With all these reference points, the final product is bound to be an interesting one, which it is.
The problem perhaps is that the reliance on the reference points is too much. There is too much of a need to align certain aspects and characters with The Mahabharata or with The Godfather. Thus neglecting the chance for a more original or more detailed exposition of characters.
The story deals with the fortunes of a family of politicians. The power struggles for the 'gaddi' and the fight for 'satta' between cousins takes up the major part of the story. Each side keeps pulling out all stops to go one up on the other. While Prithvi (Arjun Rampal) is the heir apparent, Samar (Ranbir Kapoor) is the phoren-educated younger brother who becomes unwillingly embroiled in political intrigue after the assassination of their father. He soon reveals himself to be a natural in the murky ways of Raajneeti even while helping his hot-headed older brother gain the CM's seat.
The role of Duryodhan is essayed by Prithvi and Samar's cousin, Virendra (Manoj Bajpai) who does a good job of smouldering in jealousy, hatred and covetousness. He takes the help of Suraj (Ajay Devgan) who is the illegitimate son of Prithvi and Samar's mother - thus a modern day Karan.
Indu (Katrina) is the rich businessman's daughter who loves Samar but has to marry Prithvi since he is CM-in-waiting. In what is an outright negative streak, Samar pretends to love her because the party needs her father's money and later convinces her to marry his brother. The one Samar loves is American girl, Sara who comes to India to be with him when he takes too long to return. When she and Prithvi get killed in a bomb blast, it is time for Indu to take up the reins and lead the party to victory even as Samar guns down the evil-doers. Here again the director imposes a completely unnecessary shootout at abandoned factory sequence just to have a Mahabharata analogy.
The acting in the movie is almost uniformly good. Ranbir gets maximum scope to perform and he doesn't disappoint with understated emoting. He also conveys the negative overtones in a chilling fashion showing how he can be innocent or ruthless. I only have an issue with the characterisation where his leap from a PhD student to a conniving political kingpin happens almost overnight. There is no good exposition of the inner turmoil between his better self and his diabolical one. Arjun Rampal is a revelation. He is an actor who has taken his time but is going from strength to strength. A very commendable performance as a slightly hysterical, powerful man who wears his heart on his sleeve. Ajay Devgan is reminiscent of Yuva and Omkara and somewhat sidelined. Nana Patekar is in the complex role of Krishna, Sakuni Mama and the consigliere of The Godfather, combined. He is effective but has a limited role.
Katrina failed to impress, having being able to provide no added emotional layers to her character. When she begins to canvass for the CM's seat after her husband's death, she looked for all the world like had strolled out of the sets of Ajab Prem..and draped a sari around herself. Her role in the movie also does not warrant the place of pride she receives in the film's posters. The producers made it seem like this was a movie based on Sonia Gandhi with Katrina playing the pivotal role but this was just a clever marketing ruse. Ranbir has the bigger and more important role as do Ajay Devgan, Arjun Rampal and Manoj Bajpai.
Overall the movie is definitely worth a watch and serves as another milestone in tracking Ranbir Kapoor's career graph.
7.5/10
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